Characterization of ship motions induced by wake waves

Abstract

This paper analyses the hydrodynamic interaction between two ships, one stationary and the other navigating nearby, using physical and numerical modelling. The passing ship is a self-propelled scale model of the “Aurora” chemical tanker whereas the stationary ship is a scale model of the “Esso Osaka” oil tanker. The tests were carried out for several values of the “Aurora” advance velocity and for different water levels. The data obtained for the different test conditions was analyzed in what concerns both the characterization of the generated wake waves and induced movements of the “Esso Osaka”. These motions were compared with results from the numerical package SWAMS, which simulates the movements of a ship (moored or free-floating) under different wave, wind, and current actions. The time series of the “Aurora” wake waves were used to define the incident waves in the SWAMS package. An analysis on the water depth influence on the ship movements is made, for both numerical and physical results.